Indiana Pacers’ Best and Worst-Case 2020 NBA Playoffs Scenarios

Indiana Pacers playoff scenarios: March Madness format

• Top-four seeds get a first-round bye.
• The bottom four seeds would play two best-of-three series with the winners advancing to the first round.
• The 24 teams in that first round would play a best-of-five series.
• The typical playoffs would resume from there, once only 16 teams remained.

Based on the current NBA standings, Indiana would match up against the Washington Wizards in the first round. The winner of that series would likely advance to play Boston, assuming they make quick work of their play-in opponent. In the top half of the Pacers’ section of the bracket, the Clippers would earn a first-round bye and play the winner of the Philadelphia-Phoenix series.

Best Case: Phoenix Suns (26-39), Washington Wizards (24-40)

Phoenix and Indiana matched up just once before the season was suspended with the Pacers securing a 112-87 victory in Phoenix on January 22.

T.J. Warren led the Pacers with 25 points against his former team while Domantas Sabonis added a 24-point, 13-rebound double-double.

Three more scored double figures off the bench while the team shot nearly 54 percent from the field.

Indiana played without Victor Oladipo in the contest and had no issues coming away with a road win. The trio of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Kelly Oubre has the potential to be dangerous, but Phoenix hasn’t earned a win over Indiana since November of 2016. All signs indicate that win streak would continue.

Another team the Pacers saw just once in the regular season, Washington dropped their lone matchup in Banker’s Life, 121-106 in November.

Seven Pacers scored in double figures led by Warren with 21 points. Brogdon added a double-double with 12 points and 13 assists. Washington turned the ball over 16 times and shot less than 39 percent from the field and just 32.5-percent on 40 three-point attempts.

With John Wall out for the season, Bradley Bill is in the midst of a career year averaging 30.5 points and 6.1 assists per contest. Outside of Beal, Washington is a young team with high hopes in some of their young pieces. The team could be a threat in the future when wall returns and some young pieces have more time to develop, but Beal could find his way to another franchise in the near future. For the time being, Washington’s offense would likely struggle against the Pacers’ defense.

Worst Case: San Antonio Spurs (27-36), Portland Trail Blazers (29-37), New Orleans Pelicans (38-46)

Indiana should want to avoid matchups with San Antonio and Portland for the same reason. Veteran leadership goes a long way on some teams.

The Pacers have wins over both this season while the Trail Blazers stole a win on Indiana’s home court in February. Both teams have key players that have been in the league for a while and could greatly benefit from a couple of months to rehab their bodies before the postseason.

Damian Lilliard and Carmelo Anthony for Portland and LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay in San Antonio have plenty of playoff experience. The Pacers are likely the better team and have the better players, but on any given night, one of those veterans for Portland or San Antonio could carry a team to victory.

New Orleans is scary. Since Zion Williams made his NBA debut on January 22, the Pelicans are 11-9 and starting to show signs of the future of basketball in the “Big Easy”.

Zion has shown early flashes of the next great NBA superstar while Brandon Ingram has come into all-star form this season. There’s also Lonzo Ball who is having his best career as a professional and finally playing to his hype coming out of UCLA a couple of years back.

Veterans like Jrue Holiday, J.J Redick, Derrick Favors, and E’Twaun Moore combined with the young pieces are the fear of all NBA teams right now. The veteran experience mixed with the strength and energy of the younger players is the exact recipe for an early-round postseason upset.